Browse content similar to 22/01/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Welcome to Politics Europe. Your regular guide to the top stories in | :00:00. | :00:45. | |
Brussels, Strasbourg, and around Europe. The migrant crisis has | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
bought the European Union at grave risk, says the French Prime | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
Minister. Can the borderless Schengen zone survive? We are | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
looking at strange relations with the new government of Poland. | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
Critics say it is antidemocratic. David Cameron continues to press EU | :01:06. | :01:11. | |
leaders for reforms to Britain's membership. And we have been Tobruk | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
arrest for a tour of the biggest parliament building in the world. -- | :01:20. | :01:26. | |
to Bucharest. All that to come and more in the next half-an-hour. | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
First, this week, members of the European Parliament have been | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
meeting in Strasbourg for their regular sessions. What have they | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
been getting up to? What has been happening around Europe? Here is the | :01:39. | :01:47. | |
guide in just 20 seconds. In the week, the world economic forum means | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
Germany as the best economic country in the world is to live in. But | :01:52. | :01:58. | |
Angela Merkel faced more pressure over her policy with refugee. -- | :01:59. | :02:08. | |
world. Multilateral and international sanctions related to | :02:09. | :02:10. | |
Iraq's nuclear programme are lifted. The EU steel industry cannot | :02:11. | :02:19. | |
survive on public funds to survive, but, Chinese measures have not been | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
dumped. Wants while and sets out a plan to lift France from a state of | :02:24. | :02:30. | |
economic emergency. -- Francois Hollande. The EU criminal database | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
is to include non- EU citizens to stop a Paris-style attack. And in | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
the UK, 10 million homes received free Europe leaflets to vendors. | :02:42. | :02:48. | |
Many kindly said they might return to sender. -- their doors. And | :02:49. | :03:07. | |
I'm joined by Timothy Kirkhope and Tim Aker. Welcome to both of you. | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
Manuel Valls says there is still a lot of work to do. But the Prime | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
Minister has made a lot of progress. Really? I talk to people | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
in Europe everyday. The feedback is very positive. In which areas? | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
Especially in relation to freedom of movement. That is tricky. That has | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
to be sorted out. He is making progress. Especially on the question | :03:32. | :03:39. | |
of terms like ever closer union. That is making progress on the right | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
kind of terms and agreements. Which way will you vote? I will see what | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
the Prime Minister comes back with. If he can give us a positive | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
outcome, and I am more confident that he will, I will support | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
remaining. But for now, you would vote out? No, too I would wait to | :03:59. | :04:08. | |
see. -- I would wait. It isn't just what Britain can get out of this | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
deal, it is what happens from then on. If the other countries in Europe | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
will take part in the process, that has to be good news for Europe and | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
ourselves. If people like Timothy Kirkhope are being persuaded by this | :04:24. | :04:25. | |
renegotiation process, you aren't going to his the many Conservatives | :04:26. | :04:33. | |
back like him voting for Brexit. Sitting on the fence is bad for your | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
help. I remember asking you last year why David Cameron is not | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
renegotiating freedom of movement, you said it was the least of the | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
many people are saying one thing at home and seeing a different thing in | :04:47. | :04:56. | |
European Parliament. -- silly. He has not said anything about this. | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
The ?20 billion we gave to the EU every year, about stopping that, | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
there is no change in. It is shadowboxing. Will it be in June? | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
The sooner the better. But Jim is wrong on some of the things he has | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
said that the EU passports? -- Tim. It takes eight years in Italy to get | :05:17. | :05:22. | |
a passport. Five here. You don't need your facts. That hasn't helped | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
migration. We will talk about immigration zone. The EU is in the | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
grip of a migrant crisis and it isn't about to go away. This week | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
the IMF predicted 1.3 million migrants could arrive in Europe | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
every year. Manuel Valls has warned that Europe's migration crisis poses | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
a direct threat to the future of the EU. There is evidence that Schengen, | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
the passport free travel zone in the EU that the UK is not part of, is | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
already unravelling. They are introducing border controls to stop | :06:00. | :06:07. | |
those refugees getting through. In August last year, Hungary built a | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
fence along the border with non- Schengen country, Serbia, stopping | :06:11. | :06:19. | |
the railway used as a key stopping points. Similar things were done in | :06:20. | :06:27. | |
Austria. Then Germany did so with Austria. The next day, Slovakia | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
placed 220 police officers on it's borders with Hungary and Austria. | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
The Netherlands temporarily reinstated border controls with | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
Germany. -- its. In October, Hungary built a razor-wire fence along the | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
border with Slovenia. At the beginning of the year, Sweden had | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
checks on a bridge linking the country with Denmark. Denmark | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
imposed order controls with Germany. Were joined by the Labour MEP, chair | :06:56. | :07:02. | |
of the European Parliament's justice and fair committee. Shang is dead? | :07:03. | :07:09. | |
It is in deep trouble. Manuel Valls is right to say this is a deep | :07:10. | :07:17. | |
crisis. -- Shengen. But, what is problematic is that it is only the | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
big countries with assets to do things about it. When he says the | :07:23. | :07:34. | |
EU, the EU has limited assets. It isn't a big military agency. It is a | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
bunch of civilians doing a job on minimum budget. It is the big | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
countries that can do things. Whatever your view of the migration | :07:44. | :07:54. | |
crisis, whether you in -- you think Germany is doing well. For example, | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
the relocation on the boarded-up map whatever your view, it is the | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
countries like France that will have to do something now to create | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
integrity on the external border and to organise a compassionate | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
response. Yeah. There is no other way out of this. Even if Germany had | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
not done that we would have had a crisis of. Would it have been on | :08:20. | :08:27. | |
this scale? Let me tell you... 80% of refugees in Turkey are living | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
outside camps. -- crisis. Even if it was helping us now they would not be | :08:31. | :08:38. | |
able to help. Wood quotas have been and efficient way to deal with this? | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
-- Would. Let's say we would have still had large numbers of people | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
coming from the Middle East and parts of North Africa. -- an. Quotas | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
would have meant a regulated system that each country in the EU would | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
have taken a proportion of number of migrants and then the Dublin | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
agreement, where asylum seekers and refugees have to cosine in the | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
country they arrived at, and Chang in would have continued to | :09:05. | :09:13. | |
function. -- Schengen. We need to maintain basic principles we seem to | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
have lost. I don't know if should be dismantled. I don't know. But I am | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
saying, I don't think so. --. We need the nuts and bolts right. We | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
need people who arrive at the external borders... We aren't part | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
of Schengen... By the external borders are important to us. Can | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
Greece and Italy cope with those numbers? No. They need more | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
resources. That is what we would propose. Once they have helped there | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
should be no question about maintaining that principle. The | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
first safe country has to be the country that processes applications, | :09:50. | :09:55. | |
otherwise it is chaotic. That is what has go on with a lack of | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
resolve from other countries. Do you agree that the Dublin agreement | :10:00. | :10:08. | |
should stay what? --. If your house is on fire you go to the first house | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
to call for the emergency services, not down the street. The country is | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
getting this influx are because the German Chancellor said come in, come | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
in. Germany should pay up. Keana Grey with Yvette Cooper that it | :10:25. | :10:33. | |
should be dismantled? --. There is broad agreement about Dublin. --. | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
The condition they are talking about, scrapping Dublin, there is | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
broad agreement here because it is natural to claim in the first | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
country you are right in. If you take that away you need to replace | :10:48. | :10:50. | |
it with some things. At the moment, they aren't coming up with that. | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
What Yvette Cooper is saying is that it is now de facto. But, these | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
freedoms are the heart of European matters. There is no point of saying | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
it is dead without saying... Without it, is that the end or the beginning | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
of the end of the EU? That is what Manuel Valls said. I disagree. I | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
don't want that because I think it is valuable. The point about | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
Schengen is that it has always had the ability to reintroduce borders. | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
That is what some of the countries are doing. We come back to the nuts | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
and bolts of Dublin. They were high ideas for a new agreement. That | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
isn't coming until March. I am surprised about the speculation | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
about Dublin. It isn't decided at all. I am convinced about the basic | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
rentable of people being dealt with in the first safe country, it will | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
be maintained. Even if Germany and Angela Merkel had not said, | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
refugees, you are all welcome here, would we be in a totally different | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
situation to the current one? There has been movements across different | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
European states for border controls to be reinstated. But there is a | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
crisis in the EU over free movement. Items deal waiting to see why David | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
Cameron will negotiate free movement. --. I want to know what he | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
thinks and why he isn't taking an opportunity... It is a basic | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
principle. In normal certain starters, through trade and exchange | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
of services and skills, it is absolutely vital for British | :12:35. | :12:47. | |
interests. -- circumstances. People say once they are in the area, and I | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
don't know how long it takes to get citizenship then they are free to | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
move anywhere else. Refugees do not have freedom of movement. Remember | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
that. All these refugees were being frightened about with scaremongering | :13:01. | :13:08. | |
nonsense. Scaremongering! They cannot have free movement now with | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
the refugees. That is not an issue. We will have to stop there for a | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
moment the please stay with us. Relations between the EU and Poland, | :13:18. | :13:25. | |
they have soured over controversial media and reforms introduced by the | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
new government in Warsaw. -- moment. The party swept to power in | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
elections last year. This week, the Polish Prime Minister was caused to | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
Strasbourg to explain herself to MEPs at their monthly meeting. | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
What could possibly make you think Poland's new PM doesn't fight the | :13:43. | :13:50. | |
freedom of the media? PM, would you like the EU to butt out? PM? There | :13:51. | :13:58. | |
have been protests in Poland because the government has sacked a lot of | :13:59. | :14:01. | |
stuff from the state broadcaster, and appointed a load of sympathetic | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
new judges to the Constitutional Court. European Commission is now | :14:06. | :14:11. | |
investigating, using new powers to check that member states are | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
upholding the rule of law. Let me show you how heat of this issue has | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
become. Look at the front cover of this Polish news magazine, showing | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
various senior figures from the EU, Martin Shultz and Angela Merkel, | :14:22. | :14:32. | |
dressed as Nazis. In the Strasbourg chamber, the PM of Poland used it to | :14:33. | :14:41. | |
make a case for her reforms. Our fathers and grandfathers gave their | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
blood for our freedom, for us to be part of a united Europe. But they | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
also spilt blood for the freedom of other European nations. For many | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
decades we had to fight for the right to speak our own opinions, to | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
fight the right to build our own state. We achieved that, and we not | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
have that taken away. Her main tormentor was the leader of the | :15:02. | :15:09. | |
Liberal group, who raised the spectre of Vladimir Putin. The truth | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
is that Mr Putin does not like European unity. He wants to destroy | :15:13. | :15:18. | |
European unity, and what is happening in Poland could help him. | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
The man from the commission tried to sound calm, tried to... All members | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
of the European Union have signed off their own tree will and ratified | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
by the national parliaments European treaties. Thus entering into | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
obligations as far as maintaining the rule of law is concerned. But, | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
what about the party's Parliamentary allies, the British Conservatives? | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
It is strange that they choose this particular issue, for example, when | :15:53. | :15:58. | |
the growth pact was broken, they didn't use this. When Greece didn't | :15:59. | :16:05. | |
play its role of defending borders, they didn't do this. But suddenly we | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
have a Eurosceptic government and they decide to use this. For | :16:09. | :16:15. | |
supporters of the Polish government outside, some who travel by bus for | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
16 hours for this, it is a question of where power lies, with the EU | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
institutions or with individual member states. How did it go, PM? If | :16:24. | :16:30. | |
the commission rules that she is at the undemocratically, she faces the | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
prospect of losing her right to vote at future summits. And she still | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
wouldn't answer my questions, even the nice ones. The minister, did you | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
have a good trip to Strasbourg? Well done for trying, Adam. Doesn't | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
the EU have a right to investigate and look at what is going on in | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
Poland? It does, it can have its say like any democratic chamber, but I | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
think there is something untoward about dragging an elected PM to the | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
European Parliament to put them on the naughty step and say, don't do | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
this! The European Union has had its problems with democracy. We have | :17:07. | :17:09. | |
asked countries to vote again sometimes, so maybe it should get | :17:10. | :17:12. | |
its own house in order before lecturing other member states. | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
Except all member states have signed up to the idea that the commission | :17:17. | :17:19. | |
can investigate whether countries are upholding the rule of law, and | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
it seems there are claims that the Law and Justice Party in Poland are | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
threatening the rule of law and democracy. Does that mean you have a | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
right to do what it is doing? The commission always has a right to | :17:32. | :17:33. | |
investigate any allegations about treaties. So you supported? No, what | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
I say is this, Poland is one of the most lively democracy is now. Since | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
it flew off the autocracy of the Soviet Union and become independent, | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
it has developed politics in a lively way. The last party in power | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
certainly did not like the new party hitting an absolute charity. Since | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
then, they have been trying to cause problems. I don't know what the | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
answer is, but I do know that the Polish government seems to have good | :18:03. | :18:05. | |
reasons for what they have been doing, and I frankly think the | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
commission should investigate, but certainly the European Parliament, | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
which is taking upon itself all of these clever investigations, based | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
on the political approach, I think that is not the right forum for | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
this. The reports are that the Law and Justice Party has replaced | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
Constitutional law judges, and have tried to restore Poland to | :18:29. | :18:30. | |
traditional values. Is that a worry? It is up for that Polish | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
people to decide, it is not for anyone else who doesn't have a | :18:36. | :18:38. | |
mandate to interfere. If the Polish people don't like it they will vote | :18:39. | :18:41. | |
them out. The previous government was the one that stuffed the court | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
with its own appointees. And that is the point that the Polish PM is | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
making, but actually they are just trying to redress the balance, | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
because the media and courts were packed with people from the previous | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
government. Nothing wrong with that, is there? The problem here and I | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
watched the debate is that many of my colleagues who feel that the | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
commissioners have ruined this, as it did in Hungary, in addressing | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
alleged breaches. The commission has a role, and we can do it and it is | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
there, but does backfire when you have this kind of enormous theatre, | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
where she got the last word, by the way. She put her hand up and said, | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
please Mr President, can I have the last word for the sake of my nation? | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
It has been a great play for the treaties and rule of law, and these | :19:35. | :19:42. | |
breaches are of concern, alleged breaches, and they will be | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
investigated by the commission. The commission ended up looking like the | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
bad guys, she ended up looking like the heroine, and that is how it | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
looked. Did it make you feel a bit queasy? I feel that this was | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
probably not the best way to do it, this court of public opinion where | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
you target an individual country. When they got Alexis Tsipras end it | :20:04. | :20:11. | |
was like a show trial. They all get on their high horse... Does it have | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
the desired effect? Yellow she is probably a hero. It has the opposite | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
effect. She left happy and she came willingly. Timmerman's arguments | :20:23. | :20:30. | |
were powerful. You sign up to these things, and there will be deviation | :20:31. | :20:40. | |
from the law... But she comes... She wanted to come, that is the thing. | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
Then you have Denmark looking at its asylum law. The problem is that you | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
have many laws now that could be breaching treaties, so we have to | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
get away of the commission examining it without making this kind of | :20:56. | :20:57. | |
theatre, were it completely backfires. Now, it is time the | :20:58. | :21:04. | |
latest in our series, Meet the Neighbours. Now we are looking at | :21:05. | :21:07. | |
Romania, which joined in point 2007. Who would build a palace like this? | :21:08. | :21:40. | |
The husband and wife dictated duo who ruled Romania for more than two | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
decades. Now it is a country's Parliament, the biggest in the | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
world, and apparently the largest administrative building on the | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
planet. A tour guide role that the red carpet for me, after a mania's | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
MPs gave us permission to film. The first thing you notice, it is like a | :22:00. | :22:05. | |
museum for chandeliers. 5000 of them. It is sad that they got this | :22:06. | :22:13. | |
idea of having this beautiful lights, there was a state visit in | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
France in the 70s, when they had visited Versailles. And how about | :22:19. | :22:32. | |
his and hers matching staircases? The steps were smaller than usual | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
because the couple were quite short but like a big entrance. In this | :22:37. | :22:46. | |
place, you can walk for miles. All that marble makes this the heaviest | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
building in the world. Parliament is not sitting today, but Romania went | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
through a political crisis last year. A fire in Bucharest nightclub, | :22:56. | :23:02. | |
which claimed 60 lives, led to the resignation of a PM over allegations | :23:03. | :23:10. | |
of epic corruption. Talking of epic, check out the ballroom. There is | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
room for a Symphony Orchestra and you can get a sports car through the | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
doors. How do you feel about this building and its vastness? I first | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
thing that we didn't need such a building in those days. It was built | :23:28. | :23:35. | |
with great effort, so that is what I need to appreciate for myself. The | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
effort of the people who have worked for this building, as there were | :23:40. | :23:46. | |
more than million people involved in this project. The urban myth is that | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
Ceau?escu wanted the skylight to open so his helicopter could land in | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
here. If he couldn't escape that way, there is always the spooky | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
basement. Is it true that there is a nuclear bunker down here? Yes, it is | :24:02. | :24:08. | |
true. Not only one, but two. Sadly, Top Gear beat us to it. They staged | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
a rest and he once. And here is the last stop, the balcony with the | :24:13. | :24:19. | |
specially lowered balcony so that Ceausescu looked nice and talk when | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
he delivered addresses from here. Of course, he never did that, because | :24:25. | :24:28. | |
his regime collapsed before the building was finished. | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
That is enormous, that building! Do we underestimate how bad the | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
histories of some of these newer members of the EU have been? How | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
difficult it is for them to come into a club where there are | :24:43. | :24:45. | |
countries like Britain, France and Germany? Yes, but the interesting | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
thing is to see them recreating their history. I have noticed that | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
particularly, people talking about the EU becoming a single block. As | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
long as we have countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and | :24:58. | :25:00. | |
Romania coming in, throwing off the Russian history and in some cases | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
the German history before it, and creating their own real history | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
again, and pride in their country, I think that is a good safeguard. Is | :25:11. | :25:13. | |
it realistic to have countries that are so wide apart when the disparity | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
seems to be so huge, not just in economic terms but in cultural terms | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
as well? I was four when the Berlin Wall came down and I can't imagine | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
the horrors of living under communism. I think whatever we have | :25:30. | :25:32. | |
now is better than what they went through. If the people wanted to | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
join the EU, that is for them, it is for the people to decide. It is | :25:38. | :25:43. | |
variety, which I think is a good and positive thing about the EU. That is | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
all we have time for, thank you to both of my | :25:49. | :25:49. |